


Who Are You?

by Sarcastic_Raspberry



Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-04
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-02 19:59:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4072654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarcastic_Raspberry/pseuds/Sarcastic_Raspberry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The imposter, upon realizing that Ibuki knows about who they really are, questions her motives. Meanwhile, Ibuki only has one question for them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who Are You?

Here I am faced with my biggest fear: _Someone cracked the code._

Someone finally figured out I wasn’t who I really was. It took people years to even figure out that there was someone in their midst- someone undetectable, yet there. I was someone and no one all the same. And she figured it out: That girl in front of me with her cones of hair and piercings, smiling back at me like I was some long-lost friend.

She must have known for some time, yet only just now did she slip up.

She's rambling about some story where she was talking to someone about something, and it reminds her of me. That, of course, leads her to talking about a conversation she had _about_ me.

“And then Hiyoko said, ‘Why do you even hang out with him?’” Her nasally voice is a perfect imitation and, coming from me, that’s something, “and I just told her, “listen, okay? They’re really a nice person when you get to know them!’”

That was the slip. “They” and “them.” The only correct words ever used to describe me. She’s never called me anything other than “he.” So, there’s only one conclusion for why she would change now: It was unintentional.

It was the same way I got the recruiters from Hope’s Peak, and it’s the same way I’ve nailed her.

“How?” I finally ask as I stand up from the grass.

“What do you mean how?” she asks, climbing down from the tree she’s been mounted in for some time. “Come on, Byakuya! We need to get back to gathering or Usami’s gonna be really super duber pissed off!”

“Don’t Byakuya me!” I yell sharply as I rip the glasses from my face. “How did you figure it out?!”

She looks at me with an expression I’ve never seen on her before. It’s fear. It’s not the mock fear she does when she’s acting startled- I know acting- this is genuine fear. Finally, she sighs. “Look, I spent a lot of time being someone I wasn’t to know that this isn’t you.”

Her words strike me. They’re too deep for her.

“But you don’t even know who I _am,”_ I growl back.

“No, but you aren’t Mr. Hoity-toity either!” Her playful attitude is back as she rolls her eyes and walks forward, taking my hand into hers. “I know there’s someone different in there! You just need to let them out! Come on, who are you really?”

I flinch back from her, pulling my hand with me as she stares at me with a lost expression. I can’t move, even when she walks towards me.

“Come on,” she says as she holds out a hand this time. “Who are you?”

And it breaks my heart because I can’t answer. So now I’m crying. Just standing there and crying while everything falls apart. This is it. The only thing unique about me- gone. Lost. Wasted. I’m useless now. She notices me crying and jumps forward to put her arms around me.

“Oh, come on! Don’t cry! You don’t have to tell if you don’t want to!” she says, still smiling as she clings on. “And if you do tell me, you don’t have to worry! I’ll always like you no matter what!”

I feel my lower jaw quiver as I make out the words, “How can you say that?” and sniffle slightly. “You don’t even know who I _am!”_

She pulls back to look at me. “Uh, yea I do!" she says as if it's the simplest answer in the world. "You’re my _friend!_ Remember?”

“That’s Byakuya! It isn’t me!”

“No, it wasn’t Byakuya, it was you!” is her only response while she smiles and backs up again, holding my large hands in each of her tiny ones as she swings them back and forth playfully. “Byakuya isn’t even on this island- heck, I never even met the guy! How could I have had lunch with him, or played tag on the beach- or even started a band with the guy?” Her eyes light up even more, if that’s possible. “You’re the one who I’ve been friends with all this time! Why would that change now?”

I continue to stare at her blankly. “How can one person be so accepting of a _lie?”_

“It’s like I said, _dummy!_ I lied about myself a _lot_ before we came here!” she says as she twirls around. “My band wanted me to do music like this, so I did! But me- oh!” She starts to pump a hand through the air as she conjures an air guitar, head banging as she says, “I wanted to do music like this!”

She stops and looks down at her hands. It’s as if a real guitar is there right now. Her smile falls and turns into an empty look, completed with half lidded eyes.

“But I couldn’t do music like that while I was with them,” she says. “And when I quit the band and started doing music like that… no one liked me.” She looks up at me with a half smile. “So what gives me the right to hate you for lying about yourself and being who you really are?”

I can’t stop looking at her now, though my stare is no longer vacant. She’s never been more real than she is in this moment, and I can’t get enough of it. I slowly step forward and stand in front of her.

I decide to be up front and say, “I’ve used my talent for a lot of bad things.”

“I know,” is her only response.

“I might never stop pretending to be someone I’m not.”

She smiles and raises her hands over her head. “As long as you try, I don’t care!”

That gets me to smile as I reach out and, finally, hug her back. This is a start.


End file.
